Parties & Openings

Party for Pissaro’s People Illuminates the Clark

Cultural correspondent Bess J.M. Hochstein reports from Williamstown: Camille Pissarro may have used his canvas to express his anarchist leanings— eschewing society portraiture to paint humble household staff at work, peasants laboring in the fields, and bustling marketplace scenes, in addition to his luminous landscapes— but the crowd that gathered at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute on Saturday, June 11 to preview Pissarro’s People was cut from (or at least wearing) finer cloth than the subjects depicted by the “dean of Impressionism.” After last year’s somewhat soggy Spanish soiree for the Picasso Looks at Degas exhibition, the Clark’s weather-wary director of special projects, Julie Chase, transformed the museum’s entry atrium and bookstore into a Provencale market, filled with flowers and French fare (Pâté de Campagne, Mousse de Volaille, quiches, crepes, frites, Pissaladière, assortments of cheese, fruit, and vegetables) prepared by in-house caterer Esteva and served from charming carts. Guests avidly toured the Pissarro show and the other galleries; those heading for Gallery 2 for an after-hours encounter with the famed Impressionist collection were surprised to find in its place a one-night-only dance hall with a jazz band, as well as the summer exhibition Spaces: Photographs by Candida Hofer and Thomas Struth. (The Clark’s Impressionist masterpieces are on their first-ever international tour.) The evening concluded at the Stone Hill Center, where three monumental works by the Ghanaian sculptor El Anatsui (in photo, above, with Andree Carroon) are on view through October 16. Though the evening was chilly, the rain held off so that guests could enjoy desserts and Champagne along with the incomparable view from the Stone Hill Center terrace.